Re:Bill Ackman: give every American cash at birth so they ca...
by toomuchtodo on Wednesday December 09, 2020 @08:13PM
(#25368203)
"Birthright funds", as described by Ackman, are Social Security with more aggressive investments (equity index funds) versus conservative special issue US treasuries [1].
We could just as easily increase taxes progressively (the wealthy derive more income from, wait for it, investments and capital wealth [2]) and increase Social Security payments instead, without the rube goldberg index fund investment component (which would end up enriching someone like Blackrock or someone similar to manage these broker-dealer accounts).
At the end of the day, it's about capturing and distributing the wealth generated by the economy to the citizenry (and where does that wealth come from collectively? labor and productivity [automation and machinery]). We're just arguing over the how. Social Security is very efficient, by the way [3]. It costs only 0.6% of annual benefits distributed to administer the entitlement program. Between them and the IRS (tax collection), is that more efficient than running index fund accounts for every American? I argue yes.
Not following such a course results in disaster [4].
We could just as easily increase taxes progressively (the wealthy derive more income from, wait for it, investments and capital wealth [2]) and increase Social Security payments instead, without the rube goldberg index fund investment component (which would end up enriching someone like Blackrock or someone similar to manage these broker-dealer accounts).
At the end of the day, it's about capturing and distributing the wealth generated by the economy to the citizenry (and where does that wealth come from collectively? labor and productivity [automation and machinery]). We're just arguing over the how. Social Security is very efficient, by the way [3]. It costs only 0.6% of annual benefits distributed to administer the entitlement program. Between them and the IRS (tax collection), is that more efficient than running index fund accounts for every American? I argue yes.
Not following such a course results in disaster [4].
[1] https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/policy-basics-...
[2] https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2019/06/25/six-facts...
[3] https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/policy-basics-... (Control-F Fact #3)
[4] https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/05/04/baby-boom... (Millions of baby boomers are getting caught in the country’s broken retirement system)